Bush family data breach exposes GWB's artistic chops

February 8, 2013 6:33 AM

The apparent hack of several e-mail accounts has exposed personal photos and sensitive correspondence from members of the Bush family, including both former U.S. presidents, The Smoking Gun has learned. Among this leak are some of George W.'s self-portraits.
posted by porn in the woods (145 comments total)

My word. Is there no beginning to that man's talents?
posted by jaduncan at 6:37 AM on February 8, 2013 [90 favorites]

I came for the LOLs, but now I just feel dirty.
posted by Capt. Renault at 6:40 AM on February 8, 2013 [19 favorites]

The paintings are actually odd and sort of interesting (in an outsider-art sort of way), though they make me wonder if W has been prescribed strong anti-depressants.

Also, stay out of The Smoking Gun's comment thread if you value your sanity.
posted by aught at 6:41 AM on February 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

Either as a painter or as president, Dubya's no Eisenhower.
posted by jonp72 at 6:41 AM on February 8, 2013 [4 favorites]

Well, it must certainly be said that the world would be a better place if he had chosen a career in art rather than politics.
posted by wolfdreams01 at 6:42 AM on February 8, 2013 [29 favorites]

Does that count as a Godwinning?
posted by uncleozzy at 6:43 AM on February 8, 2013 [42 favorites]

You know who else was criticised for both his politics and artwork?
posted by jaduncan at 6:43 AM on February 8, 2013 [21 favorites]

He still has some years left in him. There's lots of new things at which he can under-achieve. Maybe next, he'll record a mediocre country album.
posted by Devils Rancher at 6:43 AM on February 8, 2013 [25 favorites]

Is that Karl Rove in the mirror?
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 6:45 AM on February 8, 2013 [9 favorites]

You know who else was criticised for both his politics and artwork?

Churchill?
posted by the man of twists and turns at 6:45 AM on February 8, 2013 [4 favorites]

You know, I was going to say that on reflection this thread was a cheap set of jokes that don't respect Bush's right to privacy.

On the other hand, karma.
posted by jaduncan at 6:46 AM on February 8, 2013 [9 favorites]

I think some of the saddest moments in my life have come from staring at my own feet while sitting in the bath tub. Just to be a contrarian, I do think this was a huge violation of privacy and while his administration had committed much of the same, there might be a lesson to be learned from not ridiculing the shit out someone we all mutually despise.
posted by dubusadus at 6:46 AM on February 8, 2013 [22 favorites]

"The hacked e-mails reveal that Bush’s health was so perilous in late-December that the former president’s chief of staff wrote his children to inform them that “your dad’s funeral team is having an emergency meeting at 10 a.m. just to go through all the details.” The Bush aide, Jean Becker, noted that this information “fell under the broadening category of things NOT TO TELL YOUR MOTHER.”"

Jesus, I get that we don't like these guys' politics and, hell, they're even pretty damn awful but this is just sick. Being president takes years off of one's life and these men, in the best way they knew how, gave that up in service to us. I think at worst we could show enough dignity to not repay them by ogling at this kind of intensely private shit.

For what it’s worth I think Bush seems like a great painter and I'm glad he seems to have something he can enjoy doing.
posted by Blasdelb at 6:47 AM on February 8, 2013 [47 favorites]

Those paintings give the Bush family a slight air of Tennenbaum.
posted by jason_steakums at 6:47 AM on February 8, 2013 [20 favorites]

Among this leak are some of George W.'s self-portraits.

I shit you no I had this conversation with my girlfriend a few weeks ago:

Her: "So, have you heard about George Bush?"
Me: "Nope."
"Apparently he's just holed up in his ranch, painting dogs."
"What with, like, a roller or something?"
"..."
posted by griphus at 6:48 AM on February 8, 2013 [131 favorites]

Scanning the post quickly I saw "GWB's artistic chops" and "porn in the woods" and thought this might be really interesting.
posted by brain_drain at 6:49 AM on February 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

You know who else was criticised for both his politics and artwork?

Churchill?

Picasso!
posted by griphus at 6:50 AM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Godwin in seven posts. Is that a record?

In any case, this is depressing. Controversial ex-president or no, nobody deserves to have their personal correspondence rifled through like that.
posted by Old Man McKay at 6:50 AM on February 8, 2013 [13 favorites]

I don't like Bush the Younger any more the next pinko-commie-liberal-hippie (in fact I loathe him for his antics during his presidency) but I'm not going to make fun of a man for doing something that I would fail at.

Give me some discussion of his politics and I will run him into the ground (metaphorically), but I'm not going to knock the man for having an innocent hobby.
posted by Twain Device at 6:53 AM on February 8, 2013 [19 favorites]

I didn't realize Bush senior and Clinton were such good friends.
posted by codacorolla at 6:54 AM on February 8, 2013

Controversial ex-president untried killer of hundreds of thousands through an illicit war of aggression or no.
posted by jaduncan at 6:54 AM on February 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

The Emperor has no clothes!
posted by mazola at 6:54 AM on February 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

On the other hand, karma.

Something Guccifer might want to consider.
posted by IndigoJones at 6:56 AM on February 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

Yeah, this is the sort of thing I might enjoy if I believed that evil people deserved evil things, which I don't. So it's just sort of mean and petty.
posted by uncleozzy at 6:58 AM on February 8, 2013 [10 favorites]

He deserves everything he gets and I hope he burns in a thousand hells.
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 7:01 AM on February 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

I found what may be his mothers blog about this....

Seriously, google "painting of man in a bathtub". Bush isn't the first person to explore this genre, he probably won't be the last.

I dislike the man and his politics, but, he's out of office, he's stayed out of politics (AFAIK) and the family is dealing with illness. Leave them alone, this has nothing to do with the reason you hate him.
posted by HuronBob at 7:02 AM on February 8, 2013 [10 favorites]

I didn't realize Bush senior and Clinton were such good friends.

They do have a lot in common. Such as vilification by the right.

Oh, and their Oligarchy Cards. (Although the Big Dog's membership is more honorary than hereditary.)
posted by notyou at 7:03 AM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Tell that to the dead. Are presidents some special class of human being who get a free pass on being mass murderers? ....oh wait.
posted by AElfwine Evenstar at 7:04 AM on February 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

I wish I could paint that well.
posted by drezdn at 7:06 AM on February 8, 2013

I'll allow that GWB is a better painter than I am, but on the other hand, I would have made a better president.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:07 AM on February 8, 2013 [28 favorites]

I don't know, I guess I could see the "Oh look, these pictures show he's so sad" thing, but frankly, I picture him sitting there in the tub thinking "Heh heh heh! Lookit my feet! It's almost like they got little toes on 'em! Heh heh heh! I should bomb Namibia."
posted by Flunkie at 7:10 AM on February 8, 2013 [33 favorites]

You know who else was criticised for both his politics and artwork?

Churchill?

Picasso!

Pound!
posted by Think_Long at 7:11 AM on February 8, 2013

Yes, yes, my heart bleeds for the poor, poor Bushes.

Anyway.

Other family photos show George H.W. Bush with Clinton at the Bush family compound in Maine; Jeb Bush; George W. Bush posing next to a cardboard cutout with his face attached to it; George W. Bush with Ralph Lauren and the designer’s son David (who is married to Neil Bush’s daughter Lauren); and Barbara Bush and Laura Bush posing with a military member.

Am I reading this right? Neil Bush has a daughter named Lauren who is married to David Lauren? Her name is Lauren Lauren?
posted by kjh at 7:12 AM on February 8, 2013 [38 favorites]

I find it a strange world we live in that we'll undoubtedly condemn email hacking, in part, due to its violation of the privacy of individuals, but the objective reporting and descriptions of those leaked details is a-okay. I'm sure there's a blurring between crimes and the resulting reports about those crimes or some-such that creates a social immunity by the time those details get to us, but from a moral point of view, I'm as uncomfortable seeing all these details from a news angle as from the original crime that got them in the first place. The bigger issue, it seems to me, isn't that someone accessed a data base without permission, but that they are doing something potentially embarrassing with what they found there. I have a "let's not do this" response pretty much to all of these articles, news or not.
posted by SpacemanStix at 7:14 AM on February 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

This story would be interesting if the hacked emails contained anything relevant to the public interest. "Dear dad, I'm so sorry I turned your country into a nation of torturers". Instead it's just an unpleasant invasion into the privacy of a family during medical crisis. I mean, photos of Bush Sr in his hospital bed? Really?
posted by Nelson at 7:17 AM on February 8, 2013 [9 favorites]

Looks like Junior is quite taken with Alex Katz.
posted by octobersurprise at 7:17 AM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Her name is Lauren Lauren?

Yeah, but at least she didn't marry her cousin like Elenor Roosevelt Roosevelt.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 7:20 AM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

kjh: "Her name is Lauren Lauren?"

Yes.
posted by gertzedek at 7:22 AM on February 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

Anyway, what we've learned:

1) Everybody needs a hobby
2) Old people get sick and die
posted by gertzedek at 7:25 AM on February 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

W was a horrible president. Being President of the US is a bad way to protect your privacy. But this is really icky. The paintings are somewhat interesting, in a self-taught way, and publishing them is invasive and wrong.
posted by theora55 at 7:27 AM on February 8, 2013 [6 favorites]

"Her name is Lauren Lauren?"

Lauren Pierce Bush Lauren, to be precise. She's her own law firm!
posted by octobersurprise at 7:32 AM on February 8, 2013 [23 favorites]

nobody deserves to have their personal correspondence rifled through like that.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, as they say, but let's not forget Bush's legacy of warrantless wiretaps and other invasions of privacy by the federal government. I'm not sure it justifies the hacking, but to me that aspect of his presidency comes a lot closer to it than the warmongering, economic decline, or general ineptitude.

That said, I think at best it could justify the hacking and perhaps the publication of a single relatively innocuous piece of proof (e.g. the picture of him painting the church scene). Since nothing of any consequence was discovered, publishing the rest of it is just petty and vengeful. It may provide a fleeting moment of schadenfreude, but in the long run it's a net harm to society, I think.
posted by jedicus at 7:33 AM on February 8, 2013 [5 favorites]

I was afraid he'd be a better-than-execrable artist, and then there'd be something I liked about him. Imagine my relief.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 7:39 AM on February 8, 2013

Former presidents still under the protection of the secret service, are they not?

I'm thinking Mr Gucciface is in for a rather serious incursion into his private places as well.
posted by WinnipegDragon at 7:40 AM on February 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

nobody deserves to have their personal correspondence rifled through like that

In a post-9/11 world we must be hyper-vigilant. We must guard against all enemies, foreign or domestic. We must illegally tap yon wires. Read the emails. And execute random searches with no warrants.

You reap what you sow, huh?
posted by IvoShandor at 7:46 AM on February 8, 2013 [16 favorites]

The paintings are actually odd and sort of interesting (in an outsider-art sort of way), though they make me wonder if W has been prescribed strong anti-depressants.

To me, the two bathroom scenes look very Museum of Bad Art-worthy, which is saying something considering that MOBA has a very strict criteria for what exactly constitutes bad art.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 7:49 AM on February 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

I predict many people who were completely unconcerned about warrantless wiretapping and the NSA intercepting data traffic will be outraged, OUTRAGED about this.
posted by Happy Dave at 7:50 AM on February 8, 2013 [8 favorites]

Man, the shower one. How he's not looking at the mirror but his face is in it anyway?

That's deep.
posted by downing street memo at 7:56 AM on February 8, 2013 [5 favorites]

Principles of freedom and privacy apply even to people we despise, and even people who have no respect for those principles. Otherwise why bother having said principles?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 8:00 AM on February 8, 2013 [43 favorites]

Coming toInvading a museum near you.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:05 AM on February 8, 2013

That is one fucking obnoxious watermark.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:05 AM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

You know who else was criticised for both his politics and artwork?

Bono?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:08 AM on February 8, 2013 [5 favorites]

Are presidents some special class of human being who get a free pass on being mass murderers?

The human mind is not evolved to process the lives and emotions of hundreds, thousands, or millions of people at a time. Being president means you have to make a lot of very intricate, complicated decisions, many of them without enough time to consider all the possible angles; it means you are never acting on enough information, simply because you would never have the time to process all the information that matters; it means that you are playing on a stage with other politicians, all of whom are just as capable of making stupid choices that hurt people as you are, and it means that your choices will affect them too.

George W. Bush was a terrible president. I am sorry that he became president. I suspect shenanigans were involved in his getting elected in the first place, and I'm positive that he ran two dirty-as-fuck campaigns to convince people to vote for him. His policies hurt a grotesque number of people and set the country on the wrong track.

But for all that, he is not a mass murderer. Making decisions that lead to deaths is not murder. And when those decisions are as complicated and overwhelming as the ones presidents are required to make constantly, then I'm even less in favor of accusing the president of murder than I would be otherwise. War crimes, yes. I think Bush and his administration lied in order to bring us to war, and that should be a gross criminal offense – I'd love to say it's treason, though treason probably has too specific a definition for that to be the term here. Treason's worse than murder, in a sense, and I think Bush could fairly be called a traitor to his country in a sense. But he's not a murderer.

When you are put in charge of millions of lives across an entire nation, it is very difficult to make choices that do not result in harm coming to some of those people. It's hard to play God, even as crippled and impotent a God as the kind a president gets to be. God doesn't get to make yay-everybody-happy decisions, because that's just not how the human race works.
posted by Rory Marinich at 8:08 AM on February 8, 2013 [16 favorites]

I reckon hacking someone's family's email to get some dirt is fucking obnoxious.
So, I guess it balances?

And I think Dubya was the dumbest fucking world leader on the planet, who I would not piss on for fear it would give him a thrill.
posted by Mezentian at 8:08 AM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Principles of freedom and privacy apply even to people we despise, and even people who have no respect for those principles. Otherwise why bother having said principles?

I really can't favourite that hard enough.

If this happened to me it would be wrong, so it's wrong here too, and getting all gloaty/sharey about it makes nobody look good.
posted by garius at 8:13 AM on February 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

For a painter, he's a pretty good president. Or maybe the reverse?
posted by BibiRose at 8:13 AM on February 8, 2013

Principles of freedom and privacy apply even to people we despise, and even people who have no respect for those principles.

You should be on a jury.

Personally, I treat assholes like assholes. Principles be damned.
posted by IvoShandor at 8:20 AM on February 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

For a painter, he's a pretty good president. Or maybe the reverse?

The ever-modest Richard Nixon downplaying his painting after retirement said, "I'm not PJ Crook!"
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 8:26 AM on February 8, 2013

Maybe next, he'll record a mediocre country album.

Why not cover William Shatner's album?

Controversial ex-president or no, nobody deserves to have their personal correspondence rifled through like that.

Email
Greenstar

a family during medical crisis. I mean, photos of Bush Sr in his hospital bed? Really?

I'm not exactly sure what kind of world you live in, but on the Blue Planet I live on getting old is not a medical crisis. Getting old is what happens.

Making decisions that lead to deaths is not murder

Most of the statues I've read claim that is not true.

But it is nice to see some who live by the words of Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili:
"One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic. "
posted by rough ashlar at 8:35 AM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

The paintings are actually odd and sort of interesting (in an outsider-art sort of way), though they make me wonder if W has been prescribed strong anti-depressants.

Something about Bush strikes me as a guy who has spent his entire life looking for happiness, and rarely finds it.

I mean, look at how he signed the Barney picture. "43" That's both incredibly arrogant and profoundly sad. To feel some kind of comfort in signing one's work as a mere two digit number?

We demean ourselves when we treat people no better than the way they treated us.
posted by gjc at 8:35 AM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Principles of freedom and privacy apply even to people we despise, and even people who have no respect for those principles. Otherwise why bother having said principles?

Tis' a shame that many public officials feel this is not the case.

I wonder if there is anyone one could cite as a public official who was in charge of efforts to reduce "freedom" and "privacy"?
posted by rough ashlar at 8:40 AM on February 8, 2013

Wait, isn't the first part also a principle?

Kind of. In theory I agree with MSTPT's assessment. I'm just not that good of a person.
posted by IvoShandor at 8:42 AM on February 8, 2013

We demean ourselves when we treat people no better than the way they treated us.

Due to a lack staffing and budget, the pleabs don't really have the chance to treat "the powerful" in the same way as "the powerful" treats the pleabs.
posted by rough ashlar at 8:43 AM on February 8, 2013 [4 favorites]

This is the only type story where the word hack or hacker ever gets in a headline or a tv news broadcast lead-in. It is long past the time when the old school hacker style programmers discontinue using this word for anything. The perjorative prescriptivists are victorious so let them have it.

Hacker news, Hacker's dictionary, Hacker's handbook are all obsolete I am sorry to say. It was a great word while its usefulness lasted.
posted by bukvich at 8:45 AM on February 8, 2013

Poor widdle Bush is embarassed, perhaps? I can't see this as any big fucking deal. He is a horrible, remorseless man, and I have no sympathy for him. Shrug.
posted by agregoli at 8:51 AM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Wait until the news gets out about George W.'s brony fan-fiction. (It's pretty good, but he's clearly no AlexLoneWolf.)
posted by Roentgen at 8:53 AM on February 8, 2013

It is long past the time when the old school hacker style programmers discontinue using this word for anything.

That boat sailed in the 1980's. I believe before Steven Levy wrote a book.

The perjorative prescriptivists are victorious so let them have it.

Alternatives like Crackers was suggested - but as the plea is to let 'em have "hackers" - what's the new word for what used to be Hacker in the MIT/Levy book sense?
posted by rough ashlar at 8:54 AM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Alternatives like Crackers was suggested - but as the plea is to let 'em have "hackers" - what's the new word for what used to be Hacker in the MIT/Levy book sense?

I don't know if it's considered a replacement, but I think 'maker' is filling that void rather nicely.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:57 AM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

The Bushes are kind of like the living exemplars of Banality of Evil, aren't they? I mean, they are so boring and pitiful and human, and I can almost like them for that, except for the shit they have done/allowed to be done in their names. And they're not done with us yet...George P. Bush is apparently waiting in the wings as the Hispanic-flavored savior of a Republican party panicked by a browning America.

I feel comfortable in saying that I do not condone the hacking of private emails in principle, but feel not a jot of sympathy for those Bushes actively and enthusiastically engaged in the degradation of my country and the shredding of its constitution, in particular. If I served on a jury for the trial of this hacker, I would send them to jail if they were proven to be guilty, but out of respect for the law, not out of any sympathy for these particular people.
posted by emjaybee at 9:07 AM on February 8, 2013 [26 favorites]

He is a horrible, remorseless man, and I have no sympathy for him

Thinking this (both the act and the reporting) is repugnant doesn't require any sympathy.
posted by uncleozzy at 9:08 AM on February 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

To me, the two bathroom scenes look very Museum of Bad Art-worthy,

I thought they had a kind of Hockney vibe to them, which was surprisingly interesting.
posted by aught at 9:10 AM on February 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

> Personally, I treat assholes like assholes. Principles be damned.

Wait, isn't the first part also a principle?

Not if it's just descriptive: "I treat assholes like assholes [would]."
posted by aught at 9:12 AM on February 8, 2013

Personally, I treat assholes like assholes. Principles be damned.

The problem isn't whether assholes should be treated as such. The problem is that you don't want everyone running around deciding who is being an asshole, and thus worthy of such treatment. Do you really trust everyone to feel like they can make that call?
posted by SpacemanStix at 9:14 AM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

I hate George W Bush more than practically any other human being on the planet, but I agree, going through emails where he discusses how to deal with his father's grave illness isn't OK.

A few months ago, I discovered that he had had a younger sister who died from leukemia when she was three. He was seven; he knew she was sick, but nobody had told him she might die. When he learned she had died, she had been dead for two days. That is a shitty fucking thing to have happen to you, and as much as I hate him, I wish it hadn't happened to him. I feel the same way about this.
posted by KathrynT at 9:18 AM on February 8, 2013 [20 favorites]

Principles of freedom and privacy apply even to people we despise, and even people who have no respect for those principles. Otherwise why bother having said principles?

That depends in part on which principles you're talking about, doesn't it? I favor freedom of movement in most situations, yet I'm also in favor of imprisoning convicted kidnappers. I favor privacy in most situations, yet I'm also in favor of the judicial ability to issue warrants for invading the privacy of many types of accused criminals, including those whose only crimes might also be forms of privacy invasion. I favor freedom from violence in most situations, yet if the cops are hunting down a murderer I want them carrying guns and shooting back if shot at.

"People who violate certain principles can thereby forfeit their right to the protection of those principles" is itself a pretty valuable principle.

However, I'm objecting to your general statement, not to its application to this particular situation. That "can thereby forfeit" principle has exceptions too, and in fact I think one of the exceptions may be crucial here: even people who don't care about due process for others should almost never have their own rights violated without due process.
posted by roystgnr at 9:23 AM on February 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

Do you really trust everyone to feel like they can make that call?

Not really, but it already seems to be the case anyway.
posted by IvoShandor at 9:24 AM on February 8, 2013

It's funny how everyone hates everything that GWB touches. I remember in 2003 or so, a friend of mine had a page-a-day "Stupid George W Bush Quotes" calendar. I was flipping through the calendar reading the quotes. A few of them were obvious grammatical or factual errors, but most of them were just completely banal factual statements. I remember asking my friend what was supposed to be funny or stupid about a few of them, and he wouldn't tell me. But he was convinced that they were indeed very funny and stupid.

That seems to be what's going on with these paintings. I don't know how to paint, but I've seen how a lot of painters develop, and this just looks like first- or second-year art school stuff to me.
posted by roll truck roll at 9:27 AM on February 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

Not really, but it already seems to be the case anyway.

Not trying to preach (really), but I'd like to think we should rather go to the grave fighting the good fight than giving in to the inevitable.
posted by SpacemanStix at 9:42 AM on February 8, 2013

Some people who do horrible things never get punished, never feel remorse, and live quite long and comfortable lives. This fact twists society and other people into all sorts of ugly shapes.
posted by benito.strauss at 9:42 AM on February 8, 2013 [6 favorites]

All of you people condemning this breach of privacy are waaay better people than I am.
posted by goethean at 9:54 AM on February 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

Oh, I know I am a better person than you.
If Bush were in office (or running for office, maybe) but going after his sister?

That's low.
posted by Mezentian at 9:59 AM on February 8, 2013

The fact that he is interested in making art is the only thing I like about him.
posted by Wordwoman at 9:59 AM on February 8, 2013

(I may or may not be a better person than goethean, but as I have never made a deal with the devil I felt I was okay taking artistic licence).
posted by Mezentian at 10:00 AM on February 8, 2013

AElfwine Evenstar:

Tell that to the dead.

Pretty sure it doesn't matter to them.

Are presidents some special class of human being who get a free pass on being mass murderers? ....oh wait.

Well... yeah, pretty much they are. That's the system we've got, and GWB, although I do think he should be held personally responsible for his decisions, is both an exploiter and a symptom of a system that prevents that kind of personal accountability very well. And it's a damn shame that this is the reality, but it is the reality.

It's still pretty shitty to rifle through his family's personal life like this, and enjoyment of it gives jack shit to the dead.
posted by jason_steakums at 10:00 AM on February 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

Wow. They feel like a hackneyed-Hockney version of Night Gallery done by an eighth grader with three pastel colors.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 10:01 AM on February 8, 2013

That said, I think at best it could justify the hacking and perhaps the publication of a single relatively innocuous piece of proof (e.g. the picture of him painting the church scene). Since nothing of any consequence was discovered, publishing the rest of it is just petty and vengeful. It may provide a fleeting moment of schadenfreude, but in the long run it's a net harm to society, I think.

Yeah, this. I want people who have committed crimes to be punished insofar as that punishment results in a net positive effect on justice, the definition of which, in my world, doesn't take into account whether a malefactor suffers or not, because that has no positive effect on anyone else. This stuff being released doesn't improve the station of anyone who's suffered as a result of Bush's crimes, it just (probably) makes him feel bad about something that has nothing to do with anything he did as president. That's only "justice" in the very cheapest possible sense of the word.
posted by invitapriore at 10:02 AM on February 8, 2013

I hope he has a banner that says 'Painting Accomplished.'
posted by lowest east side at 10:16 AM on February 8, 2013 [8 favorites]

So, the theory is that because G.W. did horrible things it is okay to break into the e-mail accounts of his sister, aunt, and various family friends?
posted by Area Man at 10:17 AM on February 8, 2013

However, I'm objecting to your general statement, not to its application to this particular situation. That "can thereby forfeit" principle has exceptions too, and in fact I think one of the exceptions may be crucial here: even people who don't care about due process for others should almost never have their own rights violated without due process.

My general statement isn't mutually exclusive with due process, though. You naturally will forfeit certain freedoms through committing certain acts. But that involves a legally established process; not a general forfeiture of whatever arbitrarily selected freedoms and privacies, especially those that break the law, someone utilizes outside that process. When that's allowed to happen, having the principle of legally established freedoms and guarantees of privacy in certain situations in the first place starts to lose its meaning.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 10:31 AM on February 8, 2013

Poor guy. A man with simple desires, get fucked up on a friday night and prove his daddy wrong. Does everything he is told and ends up isolated and alone in the shower, not even washing, just kinda chilling out hiding there from the accusatory looks and whispers.

Maybe it is a mistake to see him as a victim here. A patsy and a pawn sacrificed on the alter of power. I can't help but think he sees himself that way though.
posted by Ad hominem at 10:32 AM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

If it makes anybody feel any better for enjoying this look inside the Bush family despite how you feel about privacy, I'm almost certain that policies enacted by George W. Bush means that people have probably had the chance to read your email too.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:34 AM on February 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

Before I wanted to be wealthy enough to drive, like, a Lotus Elise. Now I want to be wealthy enough that I have a "funeral team".
posted by boo_radley at 10:40 AM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Jerry Saltz: George W. Bush Is a Good Painter!
posted by Capt. Renault at 10:43 AM on February 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

I thought that was going to be a Slate article until I moused over it.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 10:44 AM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

I strongly condemn the hacker and reporting that exposed the most inept and dangerous president's private hilariously inept artwork and personal family correspondence. I fiercely condemn myself for clicking on that link, and posting about it here. All parties, myself included, should receive a strong reprimand.
posted by Cookiebastard at 10:45 AM on February 8, 2013 [4 favorites]

Ad hominem: "Poor guy. A man with simple desires, get fucked up on a friday night and prove his daddy wrong. Does everything he is told and ends up isolated and alone in the shower, not even washing, just kinda chilling out hiding there from the accusatory looks and whispers.

Maybe it is a mistake to see him as a victim here. A patsy and a pawn sacrificed on the alter of power. I can't help but think he sees himself that way though."

You are Wes Anderson and I claim my missing half-finger.
posted by boo_radley at 10:46 AM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

So I think the shower painting is a subtle indication that

1. Portal guns exist, and
2. ex-presidents get to keep one.

One side of the portal is just out of the frame of the picture, on the right. The other side of the portal is on the wall behind Bush.

Jimmy Carter uses his portal gun to speed up Habitat for Humanity projects. Bush-41 uses his to cheat at golf. Clinton... well, you really don't want to know what Clinton does with it...
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 11:03 AM on February 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

Maybe Bush uses his CIA time machine access to play practical jokes on himself, you know, fer kicks. This painting is a way of telling future/past Dubya that he was the one that kept screwing with the temperature in his shower.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 11:07 AM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

Blasdelb: Being president takes years off of one's life and these men, in the best way they knew how, gave that up in service to us.

88-year-old James Earl Ray Carter, President of the United State (retired), appreciates your concern, but would like you to know that's not true.

Either way I don't care. GWB never did a goddamned thing in his life for his country. He joined the Guard to dodge the draft. He quit the Guard to climb the ladder that he had in front of him by birthluck. He screwed up business after business, got to the governorship as part of the good old boys' club, and got himself into the White House for the sake of George Walker Bush, and no one else.
posted by IAmBroom at 11:23 AM on February 8, 2013 [4 favorites]

Either way I don't care. GWB never did a goddamned thing in his life for his country. He joined the Guard to dodge the draft. He quit the Guard to climb the ladder that he had in front of him by birthluck. He screwed up business after business, got to the governorship as part of the good old boys' club, and got himself into the White House for the sake of George Walker Bush, and no one else.

So his sister's e-mail is fair game? That's Bush-like reasoning.
posted by Area Man at 11:26 AM on February 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

I don't really have an opinion on Bush's paintings, except that they're more creative than I might have expected. But this is inane:

But for all that, he is not a mass murderer. Making decisions that lead to deaths is not murder.

Yes, world leaders have to make difficult decisions. There's an easy way to avoid making these decisions, and that is by not becoming one. That doesn't mean that Hitler (or Bush, more germanely) is "not a mass murderer." You break it, you buy it.
posted by threeants at 11:28 AM on February 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

My colleague just pointed out that there's a thematic resemblance to this Frida Kahlo painting.
posted by Sreiny at 11:35 AM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

I really wasn't expecting shower pics when I clicked on this.

I dunno, I think if I had been famous for any reason, I would avoid taking pictures of myself or painting myself in the shower, just in case something like this happens.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:37 AM on February 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

I can't find the act repugnant, either, sorry. It's just so piddly next to what he's wrought on the world. It's like a speck of dust in the eye compared to a sword in the genitals. Maybe I am too full of nasty, I don't know. But that's how I feel.
posted by agregoli at 12:16 PM on February 8, 2013

Personally, my principle is that an eye for an eye is never justifiable, in really any circumstance I can think of. Depending on the circumstance, it can be a very hard principle to stand by. This particular circumstance is pretty easy by comparison.

I appreciate those of you who have come out to declare that you do not absolutely hold this principle. It tells me something about who you are—something important to me. This thread has actually been a good vehicle for that. Carry on.
posted by Brak at 12:47 PM on February 8, 2013

It's not even a matter of being sorry for the guy, though. I don't really feel bad for him at all, because I mean realistically he'll be fine and this whole thing is pretty minor in the end, but you get this sense from the guy who hacked their shit that what he accomplished here was some righteous strike against the establishment and that's bullshit. This is nothing other than tacky, childish and unproductive, and as someone who would really like to see Bush and other members of his administration tried for war crimes I'm uncomfortable with people taking this as some sort of consolation prize, because it isn't, and I don't want to be associated with anyone who thinks that it is.
posted by invitapriore at 12:49 PM on February 8, 2013 [6 favorites]

Gross.

Really, this whole thing. Like many others out there, I spent most of the Bush presidency fighting against privacy violations of private citizens. And unfortunately most of this administration too.

Privacy is a right for all, not just those we like.

To borrow from Voltaire via Evelyn Beatrice Hall:

I may disapprove of what you hide from me, but I will defend to the death your right to hide it.

If I was a conservative, I'd be gloating over the left's joy at looking through his personal life. Because it means their worldview has creeped in and is becoming mainstream.
posted by formless at 1:04 PM on February 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

The bathtub represents New Orleans flooded by Hurricane Katrina.

In the shower, a man faces himself in the mirror as he tries to wash away his guilt.
posted by chrchr at 1:05 PM on February 8, 2013 [4 favorites]

Being president takes years off of one's life and these men, in the best way they knew how, gave that up in service to us.

lol
posted by DU at 1:09 PM on February 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

Man needs a hobby. Painting in the bathroom is a good hobby. Guarantees privacy.
posted by R. Mutt at 1:26 PM on February 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

If he was inflicting these painting on us in a gallery as if they were great works of art, I'd have something to say about their quality. Sharing pics of what you've been painting with a family member and then having those pics shared with the world because of a hacker isn't the same thing at all.

He's learning. Maybe he'll get better, maybe he won't. Good for him for taking up an art and I wish him all the best in his pursuit of painting.

I also wish him a case of flaming herpes, but that has nothing to do with his artistic inclinations
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:41 PM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

If I was a conservative, I'd be gloating over the left's joy at looking through his personal life. Because it means their worldview has creeped in and is becoming mainstream.

You know what, you're right — reading the Facebook comments in the link, it isn't wrong that his privacy was violated, it's wrong that we're not also doing this to the Muslim guy presently running the country.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:41 PM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

even people who don't care about due process for others should almost never have their own rights violated without due process.

Please explain how I am to find out if any of my phonecalls/emails were captured by a 3rd party without a warrant?

How, exactly am I to get that "due process"?
posted by rough ashlar at 1:58 PM on February 8, 2013

So his sister's e-mail is fair game?

Reporting on ATT says the Government asked them for emails without warrants.

Is that ok? If it is not ok, what legal tools do I have protecting me from such?
posted by rough ashlar at 2:11 PM on February 8, 2013

I don't know, but are you under the impression that they're stashed somewhere in her Drafts folder?
posted by invitapriore at 2:17 PM on February 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

Reporting on ATT says the Government asked them for emails without warrants.

Is that ok? If it is not ok, what legal tools do I have protecting me from such?

So, you are unhappy with the government's intrusions or attempted intrusions and that means that some woman's e-mail should be open to the public because of who her brother is? That doesn't make any sense to me. My brother has done some horrible things, but I didn't ever think that entitled his victims to come after me. Is this a general belief you hold? Do you accept that those wronged by members of your family are entitled to seek revenge against you?
posted by Area Man at 2:32 PM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

RonButNotStupid: "I don't know if it's considered a replacement, but I think 'maker' is filling that void rather nicely."

That word makes me cringe now, thanks to the antics of the right wingers over these past years. It makes me think of smarmy assholes who think they're better than everyone else because they pay 6 or 7 figures of income tax every year and consider everyone else a 'taker'.
posted by wierdo at 2:33 PM on February 8, 2013

He's learning. Maybe he'll get better, maybe he won't.

He's better than a lot of folks already.
posted by R. Mutt at 2:37 PM on February 8, 2013

wrt "makers": my husband and I decided that the actual makers are the people who MAKE THINGS. Factory workers, butchers, carpenters, etc. If your only job is to profit via charging interest to other people, i.e. investment income, well then that makes you a "taker."
posted by KathrynT at 2:40 PM on February 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

So, the theory is that because [BAD GUY] did horrible things it is okay to [KILL] his sister, aunt, and various family friends?

Bush's Theory that is
posted by fullerine at 2:56 PM on February 8, 2013

Why do I feel like real life is imitating art (specifically, the video game Hell Yeah!).

If so - be on the lookout for an angry ex-president wielding a death-tire to slay all who looked at these pics. That means US!
posted by symbioid at 2:58 PM on February 8, 2013

So, the theory is that because [BAD GUY] did horrible things it is okay to [KILL] his sister, aunt, and various family friends?

Bush's Theory that is

Well it's definitely Obama's policy.
posted by gyc at 3:45 PM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

As someone whose family was rat fucked by this bastard, i don't give a shit if he's embarrassed nor that his privacy was intruded upon. So I'm petty and vindictive. Fuck GW. Hard.
posted by readyfreddy at 5:12 PM on February 8, 2013 [2 favorites]

As someone whose family was rat fucked by this bastard

Details!
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 5:25 PM on February 8, 2013 [1 favorite]

So, I guess, according to this thread two wrongs make a right?

Kant said "Act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law."

Bush's people followed their categorical imperative, and it became normalised.
Is this what you want?
posted by Mezentian at 5:27 PM on February 8, 2013

Just felt I had to comment against oh so many comments of sympathy for him. Cause I really don't care. And you don't care that I don't care, I get it.

But invitapriore, we agree? Because yeah, it's meaningless.
posted by agregoli at 5:33 PM on February 8, 2013

F the outrage over the invasion of privacy. Like the Ministry of Truth (oops, I mean FoxNews) said while propagandizing for the Patriot Act, what's he got to hide?
posted by surplus at 7:38 PM on February 8, 2013

I like the shower painting. He captured his own face and characteristic expression in an economical, slightly abstracted way. I can't do that. I am impressed, even if that's the only good thing he ever did.

As to the fact that he painted himself once in a shower and once in a bath, maybe he is capable of reflection, but not verbally.
posted by knoyers at 8:48 PM on February 8, 2013

George W. Bush descending a shower.

Here is the strange thing about GWB's paintings. We see him looking at us, naked, obliquely. His back is to us, and yet, he chooses to make his pinprick eyes staring directly at the viewer. He has every option in the world to portray himself, and yet he chooses this one. We see his back, we see his eyes reflected in the mirror, and at no point do we see him face to face.

This is what he ran on: the every man. In the first election certainly, and in the second election debatably. He ran as the dude that we could look square in the eye and have a beer with. First, let me just say, how long did he wait to take up this painting habit. Imagine, "Pres. candidate is a painter," says the news.

Second, let me just say, have any rich boy from Connecticut who's owned a legacy baseball team and has owned a legacy country, and watch them not go in to art. I'm surprised it's taken this long.

This man has had everything handed to him on a silver platter. He makes Willard Romney look like the goddamn Fresh Prince of Belaire. So, therefore, he is looking to prove himself. He is looking to say, "I deserved the things that I've gotten." And yet, as he knows as well as we do, that he has not.

He stands there, in his simulacrum of a ranch, painting.

Imagine this.

The most powerful man in the world painting his own legs in the bathtub. Ignore my previous analysis (easy to do, I know) and try to think of why someone would do this. For eight fucking years of your life you control the life and death of billions of people. You control the economic policy of a nation. You are the deathlord of a dynasty. And this is what you do with your retirement.

And his way to present himself is to poorly paint himself looking at us in the mirror, the shower naked. Also, his way to present himself is to poorly paint himself looking down at his own legs.

A man who gladly advanced the grim prospect of the surveillance state, and the horrific global reality of the War on Terror. He now looks at his own body... his own Self... Well then, what pity do we offer him? His own privacy invaded, his own body stripped and paraded just as those men that were stacked, hooded and pyrimidical.

It's an unsatisfying conclusion, perhaps, that I do pity this man. A deluded idiot. A fuckhead, if I may be so blunt.

I regret the fact that he had his amateur and thoroughly regrettable scribbling shown to the public, but only because it brought this man in to our minds again. I regret the fact that so simple a creature was made the figurehead of global capital for eight years, when in reality he wasn't much more than a village idiot some 300 years removed from his prime. I regret that I am brought, once again, to think of this shallow shell of a person who traded his humanity for a brief in-name-only title of the leader of the free world being controlled by a bunch of flatulent soon-to-be-corpses (and, the sooner the better).

The horse that pulls the plague engine is made to think of its actions - unthinkable. Let him, instead, wile away his time dying on a pastoral fantasy. Let him, instead, believe his simple imaginary reality of Good and Evil and Saddam Hussein. George W. Bush descending a shower - I hope he sees himself in these pictures.
posted by codacorolla at 11:50 PM on February 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

George W. Bush was the man that made me into the incensed lefty activist I am.

Despite my loathing for him...man, the guy just took up painting in his retirement! Cut him some slack, you know?

I'm fine with leaving ex-Presidents be. Their legacies are cemented, let 'em paint nude self-portraits in peace.
posted by Hollywood Upstairs Medical College at 11:54 PM on February 8, 2013 [3 favorites]

Didn't Obama continue his policies when he got in office? I wonder what he would paint.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 4:00 AM on February 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

Here is the strange thing about GWB's paintings. We see him looking at us, naked, obliquely. His back is to us, and yet, he chooses to make his pinprick eyes staring directly at the viewer. He has every option in the world to portray himself, and yet he chooses this one. We see his back, we see his eyes reflected in the mirror, and at no point do we see him face to face.

I think this is a great description. And I agree, there does seem to a certain amount of pathos here. It seems like a belated stab at self-examination.
posted by BibiRose at 6:12 AM on February 9, 2013

I'm going to play devil's advocate and say that George W. Bush is the one person who deserves to have his e-mail hacked and the contents displayed far and wide.

-Under his reign the National Security Agency essentially monitored all US telecommunications warrantlessly, even getting "full access to [AT&Ts] phone calls, and shunted customers' internet traffic to data-mining equipment installed in a secret room in its San Francisco switching center." (and don't get me started on "Total Information Awareness").

-He switched the White House e-mail system from Lotus Notes to Exchange (OK, he wasn't all bad) but in the process (intentionally) broke the automated e-mail archiving feature required by the Presidential Records and Hatch acts. "In the end, the Bush White House spent at least $10 million to develop new electronic records management systems that restored just 48 days worth of e-mail, the report said. Missing e-mails included messages from the months preceding the start of the Iraq war and messages sent by Vice President Dick Cheney's office that were later sought by the Justice Department as part of its investigation into the disclosure of Valerie Plame's identity as a covert CIA spy."

-This all came to light during the Bush administration's purge of US attorneys who didn't blindly support the GOP; several had investigations of prominent Republicans underway, and their dismissals would likely impede if not derail those prosecutions. In the process of investigating that scandal, it came out that most of the Bush administration were conducting White House business "off the books" using gwb43.com e-mail addresses to avoid their communications being monitored and have the ability to delete messages permanently. Of the 88 White House officials with RNC email accounts, the RNC preserved no emails for 51 of them. Jack Abramoff, currently in jail for bilking clients and peddling access to the White House, was upset when he found out that his message accidentally went into the White House system instead of the "off the books" RNC controlled addresses. Incidentally, 95% of Karl Rove's e-mail went through the RNC.

So here's a guy whose administration peeked into everyone's phone calls, e-mails, and any & every other sort of communication they possibly could, while ignoring basic laws and eliminating existing systems for retaining government communications and destroying those records showing that they were conducting illegal & unethical purges of people who stood in their way preventing their push to war and a "permanent republican majority" at the same time that they were peddling access to the White House. Having a bunch of shitty oil paintings instead of those e-mails is just depressing.
posted by Challahtronix at 6:31 AM on February 9, 2013 [2 favorites]

Somehow I always suspected that Bush had artistic leanings, but I thought he would express them through MS Paint.
posted by wolfdreams01 at 7:02 AM on February 9, 2013

me: blah blah blah Bush sucks.

Area Man: So his sister's e-mail is fair game? That's Bush-like reasoning.

I never said a single thing about his sister's rights. Yes, for the record: her privacy was unacceptably invaded. But the sympathy outpouring I'm reading above is about GWB's right to privacy, which I don't care about (nor do I care about Saddam Hussein's privacy rights, for the same reason: his leadership led to the senseless death of thousands).

This isn't a court of law, where illegally obtained evidence must be thrown out. This is the court of public opinion, and if someone exposes you through shitty means... well, they're a shit, and you're still subject to judgment. Especially if you're awash in the blood of innocents.

Hmm, maybe GWB is Lady Macbeth, trying to wash...
posted by IAmBroom at 9:05 AM on February 9, 2013

Somehow I always suspected that Bush had artistic leanings, but I thought he would express them through MS Paint poop.

I fixed that for you.
Because chimps.
posted by Mezentian at 10:31 AM on February 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

Didn't Obama continue his policies when he got in office? I wonder what he would paint.

See what I mean?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:08 PM on February 9, 2013

BP, this thread is simply a mirror image of the crap the tea party throws at the left. I don't think it's right no matter who the chimps are aiming at, or which chimps are throwing. It's all poop, regardless.

Demonization of the "other side" is one of the things that got us here, and *here* has not been a very good place for this country. And messing with someone's email privacy is wrong, no matter how you personally feel about the target.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 12:51 PM on February 9, 2013 [3 favorites]

George W. Bush descending a shower.

The Prez stripped bare by his hackers, even.
posted by octobersurprise at 3:59 PM on February 9, 2013

Demonization of the "other side" is one of the things that got us here, and *here* has not been a very good place for this country.

No, the Tea Party should be demonized. Demonized, mocked, ridiculed, and left in the gutter to die.

They should be marginalized until their voices are can only be heard on twitter (#tcot!), and anyone that draws a comparison between the Tea Party and the left is part of the problem.
posted by justgary at 10:11 AM on February 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

I thought #tcot stood for "trolling conservatives on Twitter". I've never seen it used in earnest.
posted by Elementary Penguin at 1:32 PM on February 11, 2013

Justgary, that kind of rhetoric is no better coming from a liberal than a conservative. THAT is the problem.

Two sides yelling at each other, nobody listening to each other, chaos.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 4:35 AM on February 12, 2013 [2 favorites]

So stop attending meetings, Skype.
posted by clavdivs at 6:30 AM on February 13, 2013

Speaking of Bush:

"Hubris": New Documentary Reexamines the Iraq War "Hoax". An MSNBC film, hosted by Rachel Maddow and based on Michael Isikoff and David Corn's book, finds new evidence that Bush scammed the nation into war.
posted by homunculus at 12:05 PM on February 17, 2013 [2 favorites]

finds new evidence that Bush scammed the nation into war.

This 11-year-old thing even Blind Freddy could see changes *everything*.
posted by Mezentian at 2:47 AM on February 18, 2013